Printing-press.



F. WAITE.

PRINTING PRESS. PPLIGATIQN FILED MAR. 2a. 1907.

Patented June 1, 1909.

l 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

P. WAITE.

Patented June 1, `1909.

8 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

'run' No t; co,- wAsmNnroN. nf.

I'. WAITE.

PRINTING PRESS.

APPLIQATION FILED MAB. 23, 1997.

Patented June 1,1909.

8 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

f rject of the King of residing at tley, in ther county of York, England, have to cause the printed rside of the sheet to come have been applied, fthe mechanisniof the showingsuccessive stages'in the operation ing presses offthis sort are shown and dererated torelease the sheet.

, s yFRED WAITE, or orLEv, ENGLAND.

YATENT UFFICE.

PRINTING-PRESS.

To all whom it may concern:r

Be it lrnown that I, FRED VVArrn, a subinvented certain new. and useful Improvements in Printing-Pres'ses,L of which the' following is La specification, reference being had to the accompanyingy drawing, vforming a part hereof., *t 1 y rlhe invention relates particularly to the gripper mechanisms of printing presses, through which the sheets are transferred from a feed table one by one to a moving membersuchas a swinging platen. Printscribed inLetters Patent ofthe United States granted to me for platen printing presses Nos.' 677,389 and 727,502, respectively and the gripper-mechanism in the present case may be conveniently applied to the presses illustrated and described in said United States Letters Patent in the place of the gripper-mechanism of those machines.` f

In the use of presses of the character referred to, it hasbeen found that the gripper 'lingers and their associated mechanism must be'drawn well behind `the plane of the surface of the platen, else 'they are liable to interfere rwith* theproper delivery of the sheet from the front end of the platen and in contact with some adjacent art of the press. Sometimes too, the fris zet fingers, particularly if they are loose, become caught in the gripper-mechanism as the latter is op- '.l`hese objections are avoided by the use of the improved mechanism/forming the subject matter of the present case. f

ln f accordance with the invention, the gripper fingers are mounted so as to be bodily movable back from the plane of the surface of the platen in addition to their usual opening and closing movements, and improvedand simplle means have been devised to accomplish t ese ends.

The invention will be more fully described inv connection with the accompanying drawings inwhich- Figure i,1' is a view in side elevation of a swingingplaten to which the improvements rest ofthe printing press being omitted for simplicity. LFigs.' 2 and 3 are similar views through the platen from side to side.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 1, 1909.

y. Application filed March 23, 1907. Serial No. 364,129.

of the mechanism. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the same, partly in section; and Fig. 5 is a detail view on a larger scale showing a modiiication.

The swinging platen l is suitably mounted in the press upon a shaft, indicated at 2, and is adapted, as will be understood, to receive one at a time the sheets to be printed from the feed table and to present them in front of the type-bed.

In the present case it should be understood that Figs. l and 2 illustrate the position of the parts ust as the sheet is being received upon the surface of the platen and that Fig. 3 represents the position of the parts just after the sheet has received the impression of the type and is about to be delivered over the front edge of the platen.

For a more complete understanding of the transfer' of a sheet from the feed table to the platen and of the delivery of the sheet from the platen after the printing has beeneffected, reference may be had to the aforementioned Letters Patent.

The grippers 3, which consist of fingers to hold the forward end of the sheet down upon the platen, are located just in front of the forward edge of the platen, being secured to a roch shaft 4 which is journaled at either side in arms 5 and pivoted upon the platen by being secured to a shaft 6 which extend spring 7 attached to an arm S on the rock s aft 4 serves to hold the gripper fingers 3 normally down against the surface of the platen. The shaft and fingers thus form one the edge of the platen itself.

Upon one side of the platen is pivoted a l double ended lever 9, one end of which is provided with a roller which operatively engages a sector to be referred to presently. The other end of the double ended lever, which may also be provided with a roller, operatively engages a short arm 10 upon the gripper shaft 4 and through the medium of this double ended lever and the short arm upon the gripper shaft, the gripper fingers 3 are opened and closed. This same end of the double ended lever 9 also operatively engages one of the bearing arms 5 which earries the gripper shaft 4, engaging lugs 11 and 12 being preferably provided for this purpose one upon the double ended lever and the other upon the bearing arm, whereby the bearing arms together with the gripper shaft 4 and the grippers are moved bodily well down below the plane of the surface of the platen. Normally, the bearing arms with the shaft 4 and the grippers are held in their upper position by means of a spring 13 connecting an arm 14 upon the shaft 6 with a relatively fixed part. In this position at least one of the bearing arms rests against a fixed abutment 15 which may be formed upon the under side of the platen.

By means of a spring 16 one end of the double ended lever 9 is held against the sec tor 17. This sector is eccentrically pivoted and is operatively connected with a bell crank lever 18, which is operated through the medum of a cam 19 suitably mounted upon the press. As the press operates, the sector is slightly rocked about a variable center and actuates at the proper times the double ended lever 9.

Fig. 1 illustrates the position of the parts just as the platen has been swung up to receive a sheet. In this position, the gripper fingers are raised and are ready to be brought down upon the sheet.

In Fig. 2, it will be seen that the cam 19 has moved sufficiently to draw back the sector, thus permitting the spring 16 to rock the double ended lever sufficiently to permit the grippers to be brought down by the spring 7 upon the surface of the platen, thus gripping the sheet.

Fig. 3 shows the platen swung down and the gripping mechanism, including the grippeis, gripper shaft and the arms which carry the gripper shaft, moved well back from the plane of the surface of the platen.

It will be seen from Fig. 2 that the lugs 1 1 and 12 are slightly separated, with the parts in the position illustrated in that figure, so that as the double ended lever is rocked the gripper fingers will first be moved to release the sheet upon the platen and, with the engagement of the lugs 11 and 12, the further movement of the double ended lever will move the gripper mechanism bodily.

In Fig. 5 the operative connections between the gripper shaft 4 and double ended lever 9 are modified. In this case a pinion 20 is provided upon one of the bearing arms 5 and is in toothed engagement with one end of the double ended lever and with a segment 21 fast upon the rock shaft 4.

It will be obvious that other changes may be made in the construction shown and described without departing from the invention.

I claim as my invention 1. In a press, the combination of a swinging platen, ngers along one edge of the platen, a shaft upon which the fingers are mounted, an arm pivoted upon each side of the platen to carry the shaft, a double ended lever, an eccentrically pivoted sector in operative engagement with one end of the lever, the other end of the lever being adapted to rock the shaft and move the arms and shaft bodily, and means to move the sector.

2. In a press, the combination of a swinging platen, a shaft just in advance of the forward edge of the platen, fingers on the shaft, an arm on the shaft, bearings for the shaft pivoted upon the platen, a double ended lever one end of which operatively engages the arm upon the shaft to open and close the fingers and also operatively engages the pivoted bearings to move the shaft and fingers bodily, and means operatively engaging the other end of said lever to move the'same.

This specification signed and witnessed this 5th day of March, A. D. 1907.

FRED IVAITE.

Signed in the presence of- WILLIAM STEAD, JAsoN SAvrLLE. 

